Earlier this year, my story “Shooting Star” was shortlisted by judge Amanda Lohrey for the Carmel Bird Long Story Award and I was pleased to read part of it at the award ceremony in Canberra on March 7. Twelve stories, including mine, will be published in coming months as Amanda Lohrey Selects … a series
At this year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival The Loft contained bookcases, each with colour coordinated books, which the City of Sydney Library offered for free: “Find a book you’d like to own … It’s yours to keep and carry home.” The books themselves bore stickers: “Take me home and read your heart out.” The library obviously
Driving out of a cavernous IKEA car park a couple of months ago I glimpsed a fleeting movement in the shadows. This prompted me to think about abandoned landscapes and I really liked the idea that such “dead space” might contain life known to none other than those inhabiting it. The tale of the three
Perth writer M. L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans has been awarded Book of the Year at the 2013 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs). Kate Morton’s The Secret Keeper won General Fiction Book of the Year. Award winners, announced on May 24 at the Four Seasons, Sydney, included: Chain/Franchise Bookseller of the Year 2013: Dymocks
“When you share a book, you’re sharing more than just pages of paper and ink. You’re sharing the opportunity to learn, discover and feel cared for.” The Footpath Library donates near-new and new books to homeless and marginalised people. Its vision is to enrich the quality of life for homeless and disadvantaged people and promote
The Commonwealth Foundation has announced the regional winners for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Regional Winner, Pacific, for the Commonwealth Book Prize is The Last Thread by Michael Sala (Affirm Press). Awarded for best first book, the prize was open to writers who had their first novel (full length work
Three diverse books about “travel” have made me a thoughtful, happy wanderer on the first leg of my trip through Germany, Italy, Spain and Andorra this European spring. I’ve been doing a lot of walking (right now I’m in the Andorran Pyrenees) and, as I also want to focus more on my poetry in coming
The all-female finalists for the Miles Franklin Literary Award are Carrie Tiffany for Mateship with Birds (Picador), Michelle de Kretser for Questions of Travel (Allen & Unwin), Romy Ash for Floundering (Text Publishing), Annah Faulkner for The Beloved (Picador) and Drusilla Modjeska for The Mountain (Vintage). The prize is awarded for the novel judged to
So many prizes; so many wonderful books! Among recent announcements is the Griffin Poetry Prize 2013 International and Canadian Short Lists, with Liquid Nitrogen by Jennifer Maiden (Giramondo) in the mix. The winners, to be announced at the Griffin Poetry Prize Awards evening on Thursday, June 13, will each be awarded $65,000. The Commonwealth Book
Four authors identified as Australian have been included in the 75-strong longlist for the prestigious Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize. They are Andy Kissane, The Swarm (Puncher and Wattmann), Susan Midalia, An Unknown Sky and Other Stories (The University of Western Australia Publishing), Jennifer Mills, The Rest Is Weight (University of Queensland Press) and
Recent Comments